Essendon to announce Brad Scott as new senior coach

Scott, 46, is the twin brother of the reigning premiership coach, Geelong’s Chris Scott. They were premiership teammates in Brisbane’s highly successful team at the start of the century before embarking on coaching careers.

Loading

As coach of North Melbourne until 2019, Scott took them to preliminary finals in 2014 and 2015 and to two other finals series. At Essendon, he will have more resources, but also have to deal with greater expectations.

Most recently, he has been working for the AFL, in community footy, then an influential senior footy operations role.

Scott was preferred to Melbourne assistant coach Adem Yze and the less likely candidature of James Hird, a legendary but controversial figure at Bomberland.

Scott was recommended by a panel consisting of Mahoney, Hawthorn’s four-time premiership player Jordan Lewis, ex-Carlton premiership coach Robert Walls, board member Dorothy Hisgrove, ex-NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn and leading netball coach Simone McKinnis.

“The coaching process was diligent in its approach and detailed in its execution,” Barham said. “It begun with a shortlist of over 22 candidates and included a demanding interview process, game style presentations and external personality profiling to ensure we had the full picture of the successful candidate.”

Scott’s task is to resurrect the fortunes of the Bombers, a 16-premiership powerhouse, but without even a finals win to their name since 2004. Their most recent coach, Ben Rutten, was sacked in August after less than two seasons after a failed attempt to lure Alastair Clarkson into the job.

Rutten’s sacking precipitated a type of spill at Essendon. Long-term chief executive Xavier Campbell quit, former president Paul Brasher ceded the job to Barham and board members Simon Madden, Peter Allen and Sean Wellman all quit.

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.